Alfie’s last Cup run?

Jocelyn Hogeterp performed as Mrs. Higgins (L), Alex Bateman as Eliza Doolittle (2ndL), and Daniel Schenk as Professor Henry Higgins (R) during Redeemer Christian High School’s Cappies production of Pygmalion, on April 26, 2014, in Ottawa, Ont.

OTTAWA — When Daniel Alfredsson was 38 and dealing with a wonky back, we wondered if he was ready to call it quits.
We contemplated the possibility again last summer when he was 39 and looking ahead at a lengthy labour stoppage.
Once again, with the Ottawa Senators captain now a member of the rare 40-something crowd still playing in the National Hockey League, the retirement question is in the air again.
Will the 2013 playoffs be the swan song for the league’s longest-serving captain and the player who figures to forever hold franchise records for games played, goals and points?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
“My mind is on the playoffs,” Alfredsson says. “After that, I will take some time off and go from there.”
So, no matter how long the Senators are able to survive in the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, we know this much: Summer will, yet again, be full of speculation about whether No. 11 will be on Alfredsson’s back or hanging from the rafters at Scotiabank Place next season.
Alfredsson, the Senators most consistent forward through the abbreviated 48-game regular-season schedule, has given at least some thought to what comes next.
“I’ve talked to Bryan (Murray, Senators general manager) about it,” he says. “We’ve discussed it a couple of times, and I don’t know. And, even if I did, I don’t know if I would make (an announcement) until probably two weeks or a month after the season.”
For what it’s worth, Alfredsson feels better physically at the end of the regular season than he has at the end of the previous two.
He finished the 2010-11 season on the injury list, trying to figure out why he had so little jump and was in constant pain. Those questions went away following back surgery in the summer.
Last summer, Alfredsson waited and waited before committing to returning, unsure whether his body could stand up to a hard few months of working out in the gym. Clearly, it did.
“I wanted to know if I could do the stuff to get to that level where I want to be and I know I can be now, so that’s not an issue,” he says. “Physically, I’m capable”
A now retired veteran NHL player says Alfredsson is taking the right approach in taking his time to make a decision. Once a player has resigned himself to the fact the end is near, it’s next to impossible to get the competitive edge back, the former NHLer says.
Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson says the retirement decision is one “that I don’t think he really knows himself yet.”
When Karlsson began his NHL career in 2009, he was a guest in the Alfredsson home, occasionally babysitting the captain’s children.
He has his own selfish opinion on what Alfredsson should do.
“I want him to play for as long as I play, but I know that’s not possible.”
Keep in mind, though, that it was also thought it wasn’t possible for Karlsson to return from an Achilles tendon injury in time to play again this season.kwarren@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/Citizenkwarren

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